


For Want of a Badger

by remreader



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adorable Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Badgers?, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Uncle Happy Hogan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23701216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remreader/pseuds/remreader
Summary: Tony and Morgan have a lunch date with Pepper, but getting there on time proves to be a challenge.
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 14
Kudos: 86
Collections: Pepperony Bingo 2020, Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	For Want of a Badger

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a fill for Tony Stark Bingo  
> Title: For Want of a Badger  
> Collaborator Name: newnewyorker93  
> Card Number: 3081  
> Square Filled: K3 - silver haired Tony  
> Main Pairing: Tony Stark & Morgan Stark, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts  
> Rating: Gen  
> Major Tags: Fluff and Humor  
> Summary: Tony and Morgan have a lunch date with Pepper, but getting there on time proves to be a challenge.  
> Word Count: 1632  
> and for Pepperony Bingo: square I5 - Iron Dad

They were going to be late.

There was no question about it. Even if they were on schedule - which of course they 100% weren’t, _how_ Tony hadn’t learned by now that sticking to a plan with a small child, especially one _just like him_ , was never going to work...let’s just say he was feeling a sudden strong surge of sympathy for all the of the time Pepper had spend coaxing his stubborn ass out of the lab for meetings and appointments - no, even if by some miracle they hadn’t already been running late they would _still_ never have made it on time for lunch with Pepper at Stark Industries, because Tony’s otherwise impeccable calculations had failed to take into account the simple fact that he couldn’t exactly drive at his normal (Pepper would say bordering on lunatic) speeds with Morgan in her car seat in the back.

And, again, they were _not even remotely on schedule_. 

First there had been breakfast. Tony had _tried_ to make waffles but of course he’d burnt them. Kitchen appliances really shouldn’t be this difficult to handle for someone who had successfully built and operated _multiple_ prehensile suits of armor; something Tony had definitely considered yelling at the waffle iron when smoke had started pouring out of it, to Morgan’s amused delight and his own horror. Then they were going to have cereal, but - wouldn’t you know it? - he’d used up the last of the milk burning the waffles, and there wasn’t any bread left in the house, and, and, and… In the end they’d finally settled on oatmeal and a banana apiece (a very nutritious breakfast - Tony was going to make sure to point that out to Pepper when she inevitably saw the disaster he’d made of the kitchen), but of course Morgan’s banana had to be cut into pieces before she would eat it _and_ she successfully negotiated for chocolate syrup (which, admittedly, wasn’t a hard sell, since Tony wanted chocolate syrup too) as an apology for the waffles she was originally promised.

So breakfast was a complete wash. Then Morgan, who at five years old (five years and three months, to be precise, and Morgan _always_ insisted on precision in this matter) could usually dress herself reasonably well, had _insisted_ on wearing her business suit since they were, after all, going into the office. Tony wasn’t about to argue with that logic (and honestly couldn’t get over how adorable she always looked dressed up like a mini Pepper Potts), so he found himself having to help her do up about a million buttons (and no he wasn't exaggerating) on her dress shirt while still only half-dressed himself in a t-shirt and boxers. When all was said and done, the intrepid father-daughter duo were running, generously, about half an hour late by the time they made it out to the car and got started on the not-insignificant task of getting Morgan securely strapped into her car seat. And then, this:

"Wait!" Morgan screeched, just as Tony was snapping her last buckle into place.

Tony winced, his ears ringing slightly from the effects of having a high-pitched shriek delivered at such close proximity. "Yes, dear?"

"I forgot the badgers!"

"You forgot the...wait, what?"

"The _badgers_." Morgan repeated slowly and deliberately, as if she were the one talking to a five-year-old. She strained against her seat belt straps, trying to jump out of her chair. "We have to go get them, Daddy!"

Tony was puzzled. Maybe she meant one of her stuffed animals? He didn’t think Morgan had any toy badgers but her room (and by natural extension, the whole house) was such an extensive menagerie of plush creatures that it was admittedly hard to keep track. “Look, Mo,” he said gently, “you’ve got your bunny-” he reached out and patted the head of Stark Bunny (Mark II) who was currently sitting next to Morgan in the car; nice that at least _one_ of their party was ready to go, “-how about we just stick with him for today? We’ve really got to get on the road, Mommy’s waiting for us.”

Now it was Morgan’s turn to look utterly bewildered. For a fleeting moment, that is, before she crossed her arms and glared stubbornly back at her father. Not even six years old and she’d already mastered the trademark Pepper Potts glare; it was impressive and not at all fair. “Uncle Happy says that everyone needs a badger or we can’t go inside. No ‘ceptions.”

Uncle Happy... _oh_. "A _badge_? Everyone needs a badge?"

"Yes!"

Tony couldn’t help himself; curiosity got the better of him and even as his brain was supplying potential counterarguments about the wisdom of listening to Happy on matters like this and how their name being _literally on the building_ kind of negated the need for an identification badge, he found that his fingers were already hard at work unfastening the buckles on Morgan’s car seat. “Alright then, munchkin,” he asked as he set her down on the ground next to the car, “where are these badgers hiding?”

“In the garage!” Morgan shouted, and before Tony had the chance to so much as grin at the way she still adorably pronounced it ‘gawage’ she had already arrived at the door and was tapping her little patent leather shoe impatiently against the asphalt.

Once the door was unlocked she rushed straight to her work table - a child-sized replica, more or less (more drawing supplies, less power tools, a surprisingly equal amount of Legos) of her father’s. It had recently become home to quite the assortment of office supplies as well, items that Pepper had brought home for her after her first trip to visit Stark Industries had inspired a sudden fervor for playing Very Important Business Woman. She delighted in bossing around various of her stuffed animals and, on one memorable occasion, the chickens, who were apparently very “fishent” at egg production, even if they were terrible at attending staff meetings. Morgan rummaged around in one of the drawers at her desk for a bit before emerging triumphantly with a fistful of plastic clip-on badges, which she presented to Tony for his perusal. “Here they are!”

Tony flipped through the small stack of name tags. There was one for him, Morgan, and Pepper, and even ones for Gerald and the bots (Tony wisely decided that now was not the time to try and explain that none of them would be making the trip up to SI anytime soon, nor that the aforementioned alpaca would probably be more interested in eating his badge than wearing it). Each had a carefully rendered crayon drawing of the person (or animal, or robot) in question where a photograph would normally go, and their name written out in Morgan’s very neatest handwriting, with all the letters roughly the same size and in reasonably straight lines. The ‘R’s in ‘MORGAN’ and ‘GERALD’ were still stubbornly backwards, Tony noted with a small grin - it was a habit that she hadn’t quite managed to kick yet, albeit a definite improvement over the days when she used to write _everything_ backwards like a pint-sized Leonardo da Vinci.

"Hey, these are great!” Tony exclaimed once he’d looked at the full set, impressed as always with his little girl’s creativity. Morgan beamed. Now it was Tony’s turn again to cause delays though, as he found himself completely unable to resist commenting further. “Couple questions though. First of all-” He moved Pepper’s badge to the front of the pile and tilted it back and forth, making her hair sparkle in the late morning sun streaming through the garage windows, “-why is Mommy the only one who gets to have glitter, hmm?”

“Mommy’s the _boss_.” Morgan explained, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Ok, that's fair. Second question.” Tony picked up his own badge and held it up next to his face for comparison, pouting comically as he pointed to the hair on his picture, “Think you used enough grey here?”

Morgan cocked her head to the side and considered the matter for a moment, eyes flicking rapidly between the drawing and her father, then nodded decisively and plucked the badge out of his hand. “It’s ok, I can fix it!”

“Unbelievable.” Tony muttered, watching as his daughter carefully selected her special metallic silver crayon from the crayon box, the one usually reserved for coloring in drawings of the bots and of Uncle Rhodey in his War Machine armor (she went through a _lot_ of special metallic silver crayons), and started in on picture-Tony’s hair. “That hurts, Maguna.” She completely ignored this and continued scribbling intently on the badge. “Well,” he mused to himself while he waited for her to finish, “I suppose I _did_ ask for it. Pepper gets glitter and I get greyer. But that’s life, isn’t it?” (There was no response to this mostly rhetorical question.)

Eventually Morgan put down her crayons, and with the badger situation now resolved they could be on their way again at last. Tony scooped his little girl up in his arms and carried her - and the badges - back outside. “You’re going to get me in _so much_ trouble with Mommy, Little Miss, you know that?” Morgan just giggled and clipped the badge labeled ‘DADDY’, with all its far too much grey, onto his shirt. No appreciation for the gravity of the situation, he thought, shaking his head in mock exasperation as he finally, _finally_ started up the car.

* * *

 _"...and_ that _,” Tony finished, heaving a dramatic sigh, “is why we’re late for lunch.”_

_"_ _Oh, is that all?” Pepper asked, trying and completely failing to bite back an amused grin._

_Tony tilted his head, thinking it over, then nodded. “Yep, that about covers it.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this little bit of silly Stark family fun :)


End file.
